Kezio-Musoke David
30 January 2008
Kigali — France has offered an olive branch by sending an emissary, the French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, to her former colony Rwanda. Mr Kouchner, upon his arrival in Kigali admitted that France must have failed somewhere politically in Rwanda.
But, Mr Kouchner insisted that despite the political failings the French bore no "military responsibility" for the 1994 genocide that led to the massacre of close to a million Rwandese.
Mr Kouchner said: "It was certainly a political fault ... we didn't understand what happened. But there was no military responsibility."
This is probably why there has always been a diplomatic gap between the two countries.
But, the question many are asking is; "Is there any hope of bridging the gap between the two, if the French are still insisting they had no military role in the genocide?'
Both countries have in the past traded accusations over involvement in the 1994 genocide.
As a way of encouraging a "truth and reconciliation process" Rwanda, almost a decade ago independently decided to probe France's role in the events that happened during the genocide.
A probe committee called The Mucyo Commission, christened after the name of it's presiding president, Jean de Dieu Mucyo, was set up by the Rwandan government to adduce evidence of France's role in the genocide.
During some public hearings, covered by the local press, Mr Mucyo's commission heard from many witnesses, interestingly including some French nationals testifying against the French military.
The French government then under Mr Jacques Chirac, a conformist in nature, pushed French judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere to implicate Rwandan President Paul Kagame and nine of his top officials in the assassination of former Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana.
Were almost based
Mr Habyarimana, whose policies were almost based on an architectural background provided by Mr Chirac's government died in a plane crash that also killed then Burundian president Cyprien Ntiryamira, a French crew and some others.
It is believed that the death of Mr Habyarimana sparked off the events that led to the killings of millions during the genocide.
Judge Bruguiere's undiplomatic actions including issuing arrest warrants on a leader of another sovereign state, were definitely seen by many as diversionary, a position that was widely intended to distract any Rwanda probe and camouflage any findings or forestall the work of the Mucyo Commission.
As a result, in November 2006, Kigali severed all diplomatic ties with Paris. Everything French was purged except for probably French fries.
Rwanda's joining the East African Community (EAC) and application to join another Anglophone club; the Commonwealth also intrigued the French and further weakened France's influence in the Great Lakes region.
The question is: Was France losing another of her former colonies?
Rwanda justified her EAC move by saying, "most of our trading partners are in the East African region, and better or worse still (for the French) they are Anglophones. As for the Commonwealth, a big chunck of Rwanda's foreign aid is supported by the British Department for International Development (DFID).
Judge Bruguiere's summons of their leaders didn't divert Rwandans. Mr Mucyo proceeded with his probe commission and finalised work late last year producing a 500-page report that is yet to go public.
While probing the killings, members of the Mucyo Commission heard from French nationals who said the French military and politicians actively supported and directly participated in training genocide protagonists.
Witnesses including international journalists and two celebrated British writers Andrew Wallis and Linda Melvern testified that there was a certain degree of killings done by French soldiers, who operated under the auspices of the UN troops within Rwandan borders.
Mr Wallis the author of the International bestseller, Silent Accomplice, a book that explored the role played by France in facilitating the genocide, wrote that the French carried out atrocities under what was then called Zone Turquoise, a humanitarian operation meant to create escape routes for the fleeing victims.
Mr Wallis particularly said that Zone Turquoise Operation worsened when the French military wooed the 'would be' victims out of their hiding, particularly in Bisesero Hills and thereafter shielded the Interahamwe militia during their subsequent exodus to the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Interahamwe is a term used to refer to the Hutu extremist militia created by the Habyarimana clan in the early 1990s and trained by Rwandan army.
According to Mr Jean Hatzfeld a journalist who covered the Rwanda genocide as a foreign correspondent for the French daily Liberation, there is evidence that the Interahamwe were sometimes locally trained by the French military. The 13 foreign witnesses who testified during Mucyo's public hearings mostly concurred on the fact that the French Zone Turquoise Operation was not a humanitarian mission as claimed by the French.
During his short visit to Kigali, Mr Kouchner said, "we have to work on history. But we have to separate the legal problems and the political problems, the historical problems and the political problems." Mr Kouchner as a person is an appealing character. As co-founder of the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), he visited Rwanda several times during the genocide to help organise humanitarian aid corridors.
When President Kagame recently met French President Nicolas Sarkozy on the sidelines of the EU-Africa Summit in Lisbon, Portugal he told him that it was Mr Kouchner he would send to start the normalisation process. Just like his boss President Nicolas Sarkozy, Mr Kouchner is an opened minded and believes in a free 'francophone Africa' which is not bound by any pre-colonial French policies.
Mr Kouchner's stop in Rwanda followed a visit to the DRC, where he hailed a recent ceasefire between the government and fighters in the eastern part of the country.
While in Congo he invited Congo's President Joseph Kabila, to Paris for talks with the French President in March and also visited Burundi a former French colony also troubled with violence related to civil strife.
Unlike his predecessor Jacques Chirac, the French President Mr Sarkozy has placed human rights at the top of his agenda ever since his election to power. He has alluded this in many of his speeches, saying that during his term in office he will overhaul the French policy towards francophone Africa.
Read comments. Write your own.
Copyright © 2008 The Nation. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
This is in reply to the comment made about the shooting of the president...This i believe is a tactic by many hutu extremists and their sympathisers to derail the worlds attention on what happened in Rwanda. By trying to implicate the current Government, as mentioned in the Article the Hutu extremist who have setup base in France use that a way to slow the truth.
The former presidents death was by his own men, who feared his signing of the Arusha peace accords and thought he had pressured into sharing power with the RPF..or should i say INYENZI..since thats what y'all called us. How does one mans death justify the KILLING OF MILLIONS...oh and just incase you didnt know the killings of TUTSI in the Late 50's Mid 70's and early 90's...your socalled president was in power from the 70's till his death... WAS THAT KAGAME'S FAULT????
How is it that one man's death who first and foremost was a dictator...did not allow Rwandan refugees to return home...if he had accepted, the War in the 90's wouldnt have happened...and the French affraid of the spread of Anglophonies did their best to slow down the take over.... the Zone Trouquois was a way of letting the hutu government escape into Congo ...and the results are seen as the DRC has been trough so much pain...
The new French government has noticed that going head to head with Rwanda is fruitless...hence why they sent their delegate to Rwanda...we did not go begging...and if you havent noticed we can do without the FRENCH...Rwanda has alot of friends who see what GOOD LEADERSHIP does in a matter of 13 years... i would encourage you to visit Rwanda and see it for yourself...
People like you that want to put the RPF in the same category as the Interahmwe and the ExFar are blinded and want to maintain the old status quo...or and before you start blaming H.E President Paul Kagame for having shot down the plane...the area where the plane was shot down was controlled by the ExFar...may be you should be questioning General Bizimungu AND THE FDLR IN GOMA....
And how do you explain the fast and effective means that were used to kill people during the genocide...the lists of names...it makes it hard to believe the RPF had something to do with it...because right after the death of the president...road blocks were set up...PEOPLES NAMES AND WERE ABOUTS WERE BEING READ ON THE RADIO...it seems that this was planned way ahead of time...they knew that they TUTSI had to die but did know how to get the MASSES in on their escapades...so what better way to get the killings started by blaming the TUTSI of killing of Habyarimana.
Go figure!
"her former colony Rwanda" ? Please note that Rwanda has never been a French colony...
Of course you may say that the relationship between France and Rwanda/Burundi after the 1970s was "neo-colonialist", but what I mean is that these countries, before gaining their independance in 1961, had been colonies of Germany and Belgium, not France.
Yes rwandan was a colony of germany and belgium but putting things right between the two countries is a good step for situation to be corrected and peace to be allowed without any biased mind.Rwandans has to be careful and be diplomatic in situations like this.Rwandans has to stand on thier feet, knowing this we Africans are the one that can solve some of our problems. kudos to president PAUL KAGAME MAY GOD CONTINUE TO ORDER HIS STEPS he is a man who understand his peoples desire. LONG LIFE RWANDA LONG LIFE NIGERIA
Bullshit!! Rwanda has never been the colony of France!!
Very missleading!!
Thanks Musoke for your report on the visit of French Foreign Ministers visit to the Great Lakes Region: What is missing in your report is the part played by Rwanda Patriotic Front(RPF), Paulo Kagame and M7 in Uganda visa avis the shooting down of Habyalimana's plane in Kigali. The French Government is not stupid to incliminate Kagame with no facts on the ground. Believe it or not one day these facts are going to be out in the open! By severing diplomatic ties with France won't help Paulo Kagame and M7 in Uganda. Switching ties from Paris to London will not help thousands of Tutsis and Hutus that were murdered . The culprits of this Genocide will go to HAGUE one day.